February 2015 - Farm Fresh Style

In Adventures/ Clear Day Farm/ Country Life/ Life/ Our Family

Clean Slate Snowshoe

Tonight, enough was enough. The sun was setting, the shadows were lengthening and the clean field was calling. We strapped on our snowshoes and headed for the barren wasteland known as ‘The Mailbox Field’.

The wasteland that stretched out in front of us has been begging to be explored. No human footsteps could be seen as far as the eye could see…until the snowplow ridge…but whatever. The girls had been eyeing this expanse for a few days. They wanted to explore the other day, but they needed a guide to ensure their safety on the exploration mission. snowshoe

Exploration completed. There were coyotes heard, so they replied with their own howls. The clean snowscape was marred and games were played. Toes and noses got cold so the mission was drawn to a close. And the debriefing took place over mugs of hot chocolate, as any good winter mission is ended with.

To be continued,

Lori

February 27, 2015 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

In Decorating

Pinterest Inspiration

I was suppose to have a meeting tonight but due to MORE snow, it got cancelled. So, I spent some time on Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest, how I love thee…

I love seeing what inspires other people. I’ll pick a home interior inspired board and scroll through the entire board. It’s fun to see what catches their eye. And what their style is, what they are drawn to and what they would choose to surround themselves with.

Here’s what caught my eye tonight:

Source

Source

I love being inspired by other people’s homes. I love seeing a glimpse of other people’s lives. We tend to surround ourselves with things that make us happy or connect us to our past. Look around your room….what pieces in your room would only be connected to you? What tells your story?

To be continued,

Lori

February 25, 2015 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

2 In Clear Day Farm/ Makeover

Hallway Denial

The one big project that needs to be done around here is the painting of the hallway. It’s the one spot that hasn’t seen a paint brush since we moved in in July of 2014. Well, I guess that might not be entirely true, I did paint the ceiling when I was doing the other ceilings.

The main reason I’ve been putting off painting the hallway is because it’s big and there’s lots of trim. There are 10 doorways off it and it includes the staircase. With.All.Those.Steps. Plus, the trim is taking 3 coats of white to cover white. It isn’t even fair. But I also know that I’ll be happy when it’s done and we can finish moving stuff into that space and get it working better for us.

Hallway

The girls craft supplies are spread out between the studio, a bin in the upstairs hall and still, sadly, there a bit left at the old place, too. It’ll certainly be nice to have that all sorted out and in one location again. I think they miss doing crafts whenever they feel like it and they can’t find anything in the bin as it’s a big jumbled mix of everything. Yes, super slack mother here.

The bookcase sits at the top of the stairs, too. It’s the perfect fit for that spot. But it always looks a mess! The girls tend to pull stuff out and then jam things back in at random. I think we need to sort through the books and take a bunch of them to the book exchange that is happening at our local community center on a monthly basis. But the catch with that is I know we’d come home with more than we left here with!

I’m planning on putting my collection of wooden shoes above the book case – for two reasons. First reason being I want them somewhere where they won’t feel like they stick out too much. And secondly, this wall is gyprock – so much easier for banging numerous nails into instead of the plaster walls we have most everywhere else. I can’t wait to have them hung up again!

One of the other things that will get hung is the last set of antlers from Michael’s collection. They are going to go just on the awkward wall above your head when heading down the stairs. The locations for the three sets have been in hot debate. Hannah claiming one set for her room certainly helped me out. The other set is in the living room, above the TV. The handsome Mr. Byrne would be quite happy if all three sets lived in the living room, so all could see…..needless to say, I’m not so on board with that idea!

hallway

The other area that has been debated and pondered and questioned is the area by the phone jack in the lower hallway, right off the kitchen. Since our house is older, the trim is thick and finished off with corner round. This means anything that sits against a wall, doesn’t sit flat against the wall. In most cases, it isn’t a huge issue. But, because whatever sits under the phone jack and calendar needs to be narrow to allow for easy traffic flow and be out from the wall – it’s nearly impossible to find the perfect thing. Brainstorming made me realize a shelf would be a great solution! Just narrow enough to hold the sewing drawer of pens and notepads, no legs to cause trouble and yet completely functional! I have two brackets that I’ve had for….I’m not even sure how long!! They were originally bought to put a shelf in the living room of our first house. And I never found the right board for the shelf, so no shelf was ever hung. They moved with us….still with no purpose laid out. But now I do know what I’ll use them for! I also have a piece of marble from a mantle that I may use for the shelf but installation may be too tricky so we’ll see how that plays out.

So, today, instead of picking up a paint brush, I wrote all about it instead…..

To be continued,

Lori

February 23, 2015 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

In Adventures/ Life

Bittersweet – PTES

Yesterday we WALKed. If you’ve been around the blog, or lived near me, you know all about the WALK. Coldest Night of the Year. What a day!! The day we hit the streets to support those who are homeless, hurting and hungry and raise money for The LifeShelter.

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But let me back up to Friday night, the day before the WALK when we hit 100% of our goal. What a moment!!! As an organizer, it is so sweet to know you’ve meet the goal and that everything else is gravy, so to speak. That totally took the stress off me. That and I knew I had an incredible team of people to work with on it.

CNOY2015-99

When we started planning for this year, we set our sights on $30,000 with 25 Teams hitting the streets with 125 walkers. What actually happened was that we raised (unofficially) over $43,000 with 35 Teams with close 300 walkers. Whoa. Completely blew it out of the water! We had such support from the people around the county! Volunteers, walkers, people who donated, companies who sponsored the event…..the list is long!!

I’ve enjoyed the role of Event Director so much! I got to meet so many amazing people along the way. People who give so much. People who expect nothing in return. People who go the extra mile to see what more they can do for the shelter and the people who use it. I love being a part of something so amazing, of being behind the scenes and planning.

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I worked with Keith Hazzard, the Executive Director of The LifeShelter, on Coldest Night. Our weekly meetings were usually filled with getting off topic, laughter and obviously some planning. But always coffee. Seeing how passionate he is about helping others and filling the needs without our county has been a huge blessing to me.

The Team Captains in place for the event were fantastic. When people say the quote about ‘many hands’, they aren’t kidding. Knowing we had experienced people in place to head up things like Registration, Food and the Route…..what a relief. And then the volunteers who helped out these Captains were amazing as well! I feel like we ran like a well-oiled machine….but that might just be me! A special shout out to Christine of Wonkyeye Photography (and Dave!) for capturing all the moments! I know that I’ll look back over these for years to come and remember the awesomeness of CNOY2015!

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It was awesome to have my girls there. They have seen how hard I worked for this and were there to walk beside me. They have big hearts and did a great job with their fundraising efforts. I think one of them could easily take over next year and rock it!! Plus, they’re cute. That always helps!

CNOY-2015-PHOTOBOOTH-58

There were so many little things that meant so much to me. The bracelet that one of the Team Captains presented me, his team figured they’d raise about $300, they raised over $1300 selling grilled cheese sandwiches and bracelets at their high school. The hugs from so many people, the comments from volunteers who already offered to help next year, the yummy seafood chowder, and the conversations that took place during the night. The photo booth was a riot, too – so glad to see so many other people thought so, too! I was surrounded by so many of my friends, new and old and my family. How could it not be wonderful?

All in all, it was awesome! Today is strange, though. I’m a little lost and a lot tired. I’m so thrilled with how it went, but I’m sad its over. Bittersweet. I’m suffering from PTES – Post Traumatic Event Syndrome…..

When do we start planning for 2016?

To be continued,

Lori

All the photos in this post are from Christine, you can view more HERE

February 22, 2015 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

In Uncategorized

Brrr, It’s Cold Out There

For the last four months, I have been working as Event Director for the Coldest Night of the Year. And, now, the actual WALK is less than a week away. Where has the time gone? I’m excited, nervous and obsessed with checking the scoreboard.

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Goals are a tricky thing. You set them on the one end of the planning and then work, almost blindly, away at them the rest of the time and hope, pray and sweat that you’ve done enough to meet those goals. And there are some goals that can’t quite be measured. That’s hard, too. Have we reached out to enough people? Have we spread the right message?

A few weeks ago, we offered the people who were taking part in the WALK a tour of The LifeShelter. While we were there, I was speaking with the Volunteer Coordinator. I was saying how much I wanted to raise the goal we set in beginning. Heather told me that it already was a success in her mind. More people knew about the event and the shelter, we had already had a good chunk of the goal on the scoreboard and we had more walkers signed up than had taken part last year. And when she put it that way, she’s right, we’ve already succeeded!

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It’s so easy to get caught up on the number on the scoreboard. That goal is limiting my vision. I forget about the other amazing things going on behind the scenes for the long-term support of the shelter. I forget about the friendships that I’ve made through this adventure. I forget about the ideas that we have up our sleeves for next year. I just get too caught up on the scoreboard.

But, regardless of the number on the board, we are going to have fun! We are going to WALK together, we’ll snack, we’ll greet friends, we’ll laugh at ourselves at the photobooth and we’ll eat some more. We will join together as a community and take a little WALK for a big problem. It isn’t just about the numbers on the board. It’s about the homeless, hungry and hurting. It’s about giving a hand up to those who are down.

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Regardless of the number on the scoreboard, we have already succeeded!!

To be continued,

Lori

PS If you felt inclined to led a hand….you can donate here!

Photo credit to Coldest Night of the Year – next year we’ll have our own to use!! 🙂

February 16, 2015 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

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